The Bungee Cord. 10-1-24

Hello,

What would it take for you to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States?

The reason that I ask is that I heard on the news that someone actually did exactly that. According to the news, the Mayor of New York was supposed to meet with the President, but just moments before they were supposed to meet, the mayor cancelled the meeting. Apparently, he had just received a phone call from one of his assistants saying that the FBI was at her home and had a warrant to search it. So, he cancelled his meeting with the President and raced to her home.

It got me to thinking, what would it take for me to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States? Personally, I can’t think of many people with whom a meeting would be of greater importance or honor. Certainly, I would not cancel such a meeting because of a round of golf, a game of pickleball, tickets to a football game, a clearance sale, a favorite T.V. show, being tired and wanting to sleep in, or because the weather was too cold. I might cancel the meeting if my child was severely ill, or if my house was burning down, if an earthquake struck, or if the FBI was about to search my house. It would have to be a pretty big thing for me to cancel a meeting with the President of the United States.

Considering that, it seems like it would have to be something really big, cosmically big, for me to cancel a meeting with God Almighty. After all, with whom could a meeting be of such importance or honor? As long ago as when Moses wandered in the wilderness with God’s people (sometime around1280 B.C.), God has set up a reoccurring meeting with God’s people, one of the Ten Commandments, “Remember the sabbath to keep it holy.” Every Sunday, since the days of Jesus (Saturdays before Jesus), God has scheduled a meeting with God’s people in order to spend some time with them and speak with them. Weekly, God wants to gather God’s people together in order to rub shoulders with them and to shape them with God’s Word. To open their eyes to hope and to strengthen their hearts and minds with forgiveness and mercy. To take ahold of them with his embrace and to assure them that even if the world is spinning out of control, God has them tight and won’t let go. Seems like God’s meeting with God’s people has a pretty important agenda.

The world, however, double schedules God’s meeting time with God’s people, telling us as it does that there are more important meetings for you and me to attend. After all, the world says, “You can always go next week,” or “You will just hear the same thing you heard last week,” or “I’m tired of dealing with the other people at the meetings,” or “Surely, God won’t mind if you miss a couple of meetings.” But God knows what you and I will face this week, and God says, “Come.” God knows the struggles that some of the others are facing and how important it is for them to see that they are not alone as you sit next to them, and God says, “Come.” God knows the failures that cling on to you like anchors and the fears that take hold of you like shackles, and God says, “Come.” God knows the chaos and the pressures that swirl around you, and God says, “Come.” Given the grace of God’s invitation, what would it take for you to cancel your meeting with God?

Whatever your answer is to that question, know this: whether you go to God’s weekly meeting with you or not, God is not going to love you any more or any less. How could he? God has given his Son for you, to love you with God’s whole heart and soul. God could not love you any more than that, and God cannot love you any less than that. God invites you to his meetings in order that God might have undisturbed time with you so that God’s love might shape you and energize you to live a life that is overflowing into the world with hope, peace, joy, and love. And unlike so many meetings that you and I find ourselves gong to, when you and I see the fruits of God’s power being produced in our lives, you and I will certainly say, “That was a meeting worth going to.”

Have a great week,

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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